How Your Rock Tumbling Days Can Lead To Sigma Blade Mixers
A lot of kids get a rock tumbler science kit for Christmas. They may be interested in experimenting with it for a while but then grow bored. If you have a rock tumbler kit, or you had one as a kid, you might want to re-evaluate its value. These science kits can lead to jobs where you use double arm mixers and sigma blade mixers. Here is how that career path looks, from rock tumbling to master rock splitter.
Inside a Rock Tumbler
A rock tumbler rolls a stone over and over again, often causing natural fractures in the stone to widen and split the stones. Then these bits are rolled over and over again in a blanket of grit over the course of several days until the stones are smooth and glossy. Very similar processes occur inside sigma blade mixer.
Inside a Sigma Mixer
Inside a sigma mixer, you have two blades, but these blades are churning to push rocks through. They may grind, cut, or pulverize the stones and/or slurries that are dumped into the mixer. Some bits of rock may come out of the mixer smoother than when they went in, but that is a side effect of how the mixer operates. As a former rock tumbler, you already understand many of the operational principles of this machine, as well as how the interior components do what they do.
As such, training for operating sigma mixers is not as difficult or as intense. You know what to pour into the tumbler or mixer, and you know exactly what is going to come out the end. You know how to change the processes with varying grits and blades that bust up, grind smooth, and/or polish rock. You also know how to open these machines and carefully maintain them so that they continue to work as expected.
Taking What You Know and Turning It into an Industrial Career
Seeing how these processes at play and at work are so similar, you can take what you know and look for a way to become certified (if needed). If you do not need to be certified to operate a sigma mixer in your state, it may be possible to use what you know about rock tumblers and apply it to the required job skills. It just depends what your potential employer is looking for in his/her new sigma operator.